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It just been made clear it's possible to watch the mountain biking at cannock without a ticket.
Does anyone know how much can be seen of the event without one
I'm off work on Wednesday maybe worth a drive down (from NW) a bit closer then cycle in
I did try and get tickets but failed did anyone get any?
My riding buddy has got tickets, presume they are for the start/finish or climb or something, he doesn't actually know. But yea you can stand by the course for free.
Most of the residents of Malvern might be there to support Evie
https://www.malverngazette.co.uk/news/malvern/20230166.birmingham-2022-no-need-tickets-watch-richards-commonwealth-games/#:~:text=FANS%20of%20Malver n's%20very%20own,Games%20in%20Birmingham%20in%20August.
It's just the arena bit that is ticketed, you can stand anywhere along the course.
I'm gutted coz I'm going on holiday to wales tomorrow and I live 35 mins away.
Have a look on the official webpage and there are a couple of maps on there.
Tickets get you into the main start/finish area. The free to view spectator points are colour coded, possibly 5/6 different areas iirc. It’s a small course with hardly any elevation so you’ll easily get to see all the different available parts of the track if you wanted.
We really enjoyed watching the Glasgow XC - really fun spectating, great atmosphere at the finish, a lot of love for the underdog/those running in with punctures etc.
anyone know if it's going to be on the main telly, or red button? assuming BBC will cover it?
Not sure about TV etc but when I was round there a few weeks ago they were building a rock drop off.
Looks nasty and quite big, I certainly wouldn’t ride it.
Interesting to see if it is on tv or you tube just how big it looks.
only the arena is ticketed
Where would I find the starting lineups for the mtb race?
Couldn't find them after a Google and look through the official Commonwealth games website.
https://www.birmingham2022.com/results/day-by-dayClick on the MTB event, it then shows the Mens & Womens events. Click on the + to see the line up.
Why no Annie Last?
Is this going to be shown live on the BBC coverage? Or is there a scheduled slot for highlights?
Looks like it yes: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/commonwealth-games/62239236
I'm sure it'll be via the red button if not the main channel.
11.30-4pm.today
Men's 11.30, womens 2pm
Hmm. Accessed via Red button / today but just a frozen banner.
Anyone else with more success?
Watching via red button now
BBC Red Button. Cross Country Finals, sounds exotic. Had to turn the Wifi's on in the TV and everything.
Got halfway there and had to turn back as M5 closed due to a fatal accident.
gotta say, listening to rochelle's commentary is underwhelming. she's the Daria of commentators.
the racing is quite exciting, if you imagine rob and bart commenting.
Not that I could do much better.
the racing is quite exciting, if you imagine rob and bart commenting.
It is what it is….
In my opinion the course was disappointing, commentators beyond dull and field a little empty being a little devoid of ‘star’ riders with 5 or 6 exceptions. Disappointed Mariske Strauss and Anton Cooper were laid up with Covid.
Pleased with the end results though.
In my opinion the course was disappointing,
Well, those Rock gardens are a lot more complex and "bigger" than they look on the TV, but other than that the course I raced and gave up on felt more challenging than all the flat-ish stuff we saw this afternoon - I only recognised the Twin peaks. I do know from experienced Trails look very different on the telly / at social pace, I know people that say Hadleigh is easy to ride around, but try it race pace and ouch!
BBC can't match some of the commentators I guess and people are on hols / at work on a Wednesday so do we really expect big crowds? With regard to riders, most of them are focused focused on the World Champs, so a trip to the UK may have been disruptive and also a covid risk that they don't want to take.
Wow, that was a really dull course.
It was pretty disappointing to see such a small field particularly in the women's race. I know there are bigger priorities for the top riders but surely the home nations could have sent some more riders partly for younger ones to gain experience at a big event but also to flesh out the race and give the crowd some more riders to cheer. It might be the only experience a lot of those attending will have of watching XC racing - for cycling fans the commonwealths are an after thought but for the general public its probably the race that gets the most coverage and attention outside the Olympics. Jersey had more riders than any of the other nations!
As for Rochelle Gilmour - awful commentator and im surprised the racist tweets a couple of years ago didn't end her broadcasting career on the bbc.
Don't understand how Jersey and Guernsey can field 5 riders in total but Wales managed 0. What's that all about?
Don’t understand how Jersey and Guernsey can field 5 riders in total but Wales managed 0. What’s that all about?
They had an "athlete nomination policy"
I'm guessing no welsh riders met Welsh cyclings overly ambitious standards. Big own goal IMHO.
The policy can be found here.
Quotas innit. Wales had a max total number of athletes it could field across all disciplines. I think the system is designed to make sure that the larger richer nations don’t drown out less affluent countries or something.
It’s been the same for a load of events - like the mens 10000m which was had a tiny field and the Marathon where there are Welsh runners with PBs not that much slower than the winning time (eg like my Son in law) albeit on flatter courses.
I had a fun day with my 2 kids in the arena, luckily with a big umbrella for a bit of shade but the event was a total flop for me
- stupidly small fields and not competitive
- no para event or anything else going on
- couldn’t get near the bits/ team zone from the arena so didn’t see the big name riders until 2 mins before race started
- totally un-necessary helicopter flying about but hardly being used for footage. Makes a joke of the ‘try not to drive’ message
- bit of a boring course, no features in the arena area so we actually paid to see the worst bit of the course
- no access to riders post race except a couple who broke out of their pen to see family
- lots of kids trails, BC coaches standing about and messages about bring your kids’ bikes which we did, only to be told they couldn’t come in the arena or lock outside so had to go back to the car
Will there now be some sort of legacy event using the trail? I’d be up for that, flat and boring suits me!
Wasn’t all flat and boring
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From that pic, they should definitely have had a side on view for the live footage!
You could see how steep that bit was, but it doesn’t make up for the rest of the track!
Spent all day there, brilliant atmosphere all around the course. Thousands watching.
For what is just a small low level plantation / woodland that has no place in international sport the course was great, that cant be seen on TV, the Heli camera showed riders going over a lump that was actually an 6ft plus gap jump for example ( which was actually a rebuilt cheeky trail) Some of the men / women didnt ride the more difficult sections, but thats the just the more inclusive nature of the games I guess.
Shame about the number of riders but it was held inbetween two North American races so to be expected. Evie was so fast.
Had a strange talking to from some forestry helpers about avoiding ground nesting birds by the course areas after diggers, dumper trucks etc had spent a month in there.
So a great event that has had an unbelievable amount of resources thrown at it. £600k iirc to start with, Im sure that went months ago and more got allocated.
Didn't go to the grandstand area, that looked piss poor on TV.
Commentator gold for me was "and here's the last placed rider... oh no it's not is Evie Richards" 🤣
I was there all day yesterday, went with 3 mates, took bikes and parked at castle ring so biked in via Monkey and Follow the Dog. Had tickets so watched start of men's race and the end of women's race + medals from the arena, spent the majority of the time at the rock garden and rock drop, which were impressive to watch, much tougher in real life than came across on TV. Underwhelmed by what the £22 ticket brought, but was good to see Evie cross the line and receive her medal at the end. Still a great day out though! Plus I saw myself on TV afterwards 😎
Had a great day out with some of the kids, parents and other coaches from my Go-Ride club...
The atmosphere was ace, with so many people packed in all cheering and encouraging all the riders, although most people were a little disappointed by the lack of riders in the women's field. But seeing Evie racing was brilliant... she certainly knows how to ride a bike!
Oh, and have to say, the rock garden was definitely not as tame on the flesh as it looked on TV... and was way harder to ride slower by the looks of it as well. The big drop was also impressively big, although did look easier than the rock garden when you got up close.
Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be any chance of follow up events on the same course... Deers Leap has already gone, as I presume has the rock garden before it. And as I understand it, all the other additional features are being or have already been removed.
Unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be any chance of follow up events on the same course… Deers Leap has already gone, as I presume has the rock garden before it. And as I understand it, all the other additional features are being or have already been removed.
Good old England and its progressive thinking 🙂
A course POV preview would have been good, and some better camera angles on the steeper more tech features would have helped too.
We spent all day there - mostly by Stegasaurous (orange viewing area iirc) as we got to see them go both ways.
The arena area looked empty most of the time other than the grandstand - why they had limited tickets I don't know.
The thing that annoyed me was the price of food at the pop-up stalls - £8.00 for a bacon baguette!! Needless to say we went to the cafe.
Thought it was a pretty decent day out watching racing for free.
We managed to book one of the free disabled spaces so was able to take my wife who actually enjoyed it.
Had the look of a Centre Parcs trail with a couple of features plonked in.
I can kinda understand reason for some of it... the race route ran the 'wrong' way on that section of trail, and the rock garden would be essentially impossible to ride up!
Plus Deers Leap just drops on a fire road and doesn't link into anything else really.
It would be nice if they did leave some of the other bits, but again, it's not really the character of the place as the Chase isn't really a rocky area, it's more of a twisty turny rooty place when you get away from the built trails.
@funkynick, Wouldn't you think that with the expense they have gone to, that they would have future proofed whatever they designed to leave a bit of a legacy and give the area a bit of a boost? Anyway, maybe I live in cloud cuckoo land, what do I know 🙂
We do have a legacy trail - Perry's which is the new blue trail, and a couple of new features on the Dog - mainly the 3 drops & berms they used just outside of the arena area at the start of the lap.
Granted we thought we might get a few more red or black features but not to be.
Oh we also have the pedal & play area and an (alleged...) Full time BC coach on site to 'spot talent'... 🙄
Not bad for 600k + 🙂
Did they remove the braking bumps from the public trails Along with the new stuff?
As dirk said, we do have a new blue trail, which made up a good chunk of the course even if they did ride some of it backwards... but it has been incredibly popular with kids and families, and ebikers by the number who blast through it at warp speed!
I'd say it's probably a really good legacy in getting people out riding, but I'll agree that it would be nice to have a few more of the features left...
The braking bumps disappeared on the renovated sections... but are big enough to swallow a small child on some of the older sections...
Everyone’s an expert as they say.
The games enabled Perry’s Trail to be built and has supported the child-friendly areas built elsewhere at Birches Valley (as stated by others already).
Forestry England’s approach over recent years has been towards a more all-inclusive trail style and therefore expecting red or black features to be added , and retained in some of the most congested spots of the main visitor area is simply unrealistic.
The legacy is massive, a Blue graded trail like the one now in place has been a target for the best part of 20 years and has been made possible only because of this event.
One of the most frustrating parts (for me) yesterday was hearing the sheer number of armchair experts who started every loud statement with phrases such as “what they need to do is…”
@st, yet other areas do this type of work through volunteers with nowhere near the 600k funding that this got.
I don't doubt there are benefits but the fact it has taken 20yrs and 600k says more crappy things than it does good about FE's approach. Did you know they have stopped racing in many if not all of their locations? Event organisers are having to rely on private land owners to allow them to put on events. England sucks compared with the attitude in Wales and Scotland, and I am sure they are not perfect either
WHAT THEY NEED TO DO IS MOVE ALL THE ROCKS TO STILE COP! 😉
The legacy is massive, a Blue graded trail like the one now in place has been a target for the best part of 20 years and has been made possible only because of this event.
yet other areas do this type of work through volunteers with nowhere near the 600k funding that this got.
The Forest of Dean has a brilliant group of volunteers doing great work with very limited resources.
Cheesybeenz, and since 2002 Cannock Chase has had a brilliant group doing great work.
Sadly changes in staff, attitude and Covid all but killed volunteer building off. It’s just about back up and running but isn’t (and probably will never) be anything like what it was.
I’m not defending FE in my earlier comments, I’m fact I’ve got quite the axe to grind but the fact remains that given what is now a regional (if not national) approach the kind of things people are saying “they must do” won’t happen.
The area around Birches Valley is more of a honey pot location than it has ever been but there remains this undercurrent of feeling that it must be turned over to mountain bikers as an area.
The Perry Trail is ace, it’s been a long time coming and despite not involving the volunteers at all I wouldn’t think to criticise it. Sure there are lots of alternatives that could have been built but it’s not a half arsed attempt to fill a need.
Sadly without the drive of Chase Trails’ volunteers the development of trails will be limited to the formula handed down to the FE team.
Johnjn2000, yes and Follow the Dog was originally built and opened with no more money than a few quid in hand tools and a handful of days for a machine and driver to locally excavate sand and gravel.
The Perry Trail is a professionally designed and built trail and with that comes the inevitable significant cost. As per my last post I think what’s been left is a great asset and any alternative built in a professional way is a short period of time would have cost the same.
I didn’t know about the racing constraints nationally as my view is very much local and I can only speak to that. In this case XC racing is doing well on FE land which seems to show again the disconnect between regional approaches.
Walleater, too right however there would need to be another glacier pass through to get them into place! We rode past the extracted pile last night and they’re bigguns. We were tempted to wait to see if Hans Rey was coming along for a session.
*bites*
I'm not knocking the FC as they obviously have to try and please everyone - which ain't going to happen, BUT the trails over the Chase have been 'dumbed down' significantly over the last few years.
It's frustrating for those of us who ride regularly (daily/weekly) that the trail maintenance (especially over COVID) has dropped off - but the hammering the trails got during lockdown with the increased traffic and those new to the sport have resulted in just regrading (flattening) sections to get them ridable - devils staircase for example, and why did they take out the rock steps at the end of Billy Goats Gruff and put them stupid little berms in??
It took them ages to decide what to do with Rock n Rollers after they demolished that - and lets face it Snakes n Adders doesn't really work in parts - table tops with uphill run in?
I personally don't mind the braking bumps as they add to the features.....
As someone who's both a bit pants at mountain biking, and rides Cannock Chase very regularly, I'd argue that the trails haven't been dumbed down.
When I started riding there, there wasn't a single rock garden. Then in 2010 they added the original Steg, which eventually got replaced by the harder and longer current Steg. Then rock features started getting added elsewhere - step ups on Billy Goats Gruff, the rock gardens on Bomb Hole, etc. Some of the red options on the new blue trail are arguably harder than anything on the Dog or the Monkey. And obviously the battering the trails have taken whilst there's been no volunteer work makes things a more challenging ride than previously. I actually miss what it was like in the early days, even though a bunch of sections would be out of commission every winter due to turning into mudpits - which goes to show, you can't please everyone.
(That said, I did laugh like a drain at the boardwalk on section 7/Watch Out Trolls! being regraded black (although it's worth noting that was also made harder a couple of years back, when they added the rock garden roll into it). I avoided it for a couple of weeks, before my husband pointed out it was exactly the same as it was before. I'm guessing that they got sick of people falling in the bog of eternal despair?)
I went over last night - I have to say that the extra features put in over the last couple of weeks have been great.
The 'relocated' Commonwealth Stags Leap feature on Perry's Trail is great - quite a big feature.
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5ft 12 yo for scale.......
i suspect that's not quite as steep as when used in the race, but stil impressive
i suspect that’s not quite as steep as when used in the race, but stil impressive
To be fair, given the abilities of the general MTB'er it's just as well it's not as steep or tall as the one in the race
given the abilities of the general MTB’er
Fair point, extremely well made 😀